In fact, the Pope gave measured
guidance on the touchy question, which is currently a high-profile issue in
both the United States and Mexico. The issue of excommunication and abortion
arose during an informal press conference on the plane taking the Holy Father
to Brazil May 9.

The question came in two parts,
first from the Vatican correspondent of the Mexican television network
Televisa, and then from Italian journalist Marco Politi, who requested further
precision on the issue.

Both asked Benedict if the Mexican
bishops were correct in excommunicating the legislators in Mexico City who last
month voted in favor of legalizing abortion in the Mexican capital.

In reality, no such excommunications
had occurred.

A
few weeks ago, the Archdiocese of Mexico City noted that doctors and nurses who
participate in abortions, as well as lawmakers who support the legalization of
abortion, may incur a latae sententiae (automatic) excommunication.

On May 5, Cardinal Norberto Rivera
of Mexico City made it clear that no bishop had personally excommunicated a
politician. Instead, according to the Code of Canon Law, “each Catholic brings
on himself or herself the consequences of his or her actions regarding
Communion,” the cardinal stated.

Commenting on the Mexican situation,
the Pope said that “this [excommunication] was not arbitrary, but rather it is
permitted by canon law, which says that putting the innocent to death is not
compatible with receiving Communion, which is to receive the body of Christ.”

Assuming from the journalists’
questioning that pro-abortion politicians were already excommunicated, the Holy
Father explained that Catholic authorities in Mexico “did not do anything new,
surprising or arbitrary. They simply publicly announced what is contained in
the law of the Church, which expresses our appreciation of life and that human
individuality, human personality, is present from the first moment of life.”

During the same, 25-minute informal
conversation with journalists aboard the plane, Benedict indicated that those
with a pro-abortion position have “doubts about the value and beauty of life,
and even doubt about the future.

“Selfishness
and fear are at the root of [pro-abortion] legislation. We, in the Church, have
a great struggle to defend life,” he added.

Said the Pope, “The Church says that
life is beautiful, it is not something to doubt but is a gift, even when one
lives in difficult circumstances. It is always a gift.”

Some news reports claimed that the
director of the Vatican Press Office, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, later
“downplayed” Benedict’s words.

What Father Lombardi actually did
was to explain what many journalists, both in Mexico and on board the Pope’s
plane, did not understand: the distinction between the penalty of
excommunication, as it is specified in canon law, and the disciplinary act of
denying Communion to those who support abortion.

In the first case, a penalty of
excommunication is formally imposed by a bishop; in the second case, the
separation from Communion arises automatically as a consequence of committing a
grave act in complete contradiction with Catholic doctrine.

In
a statement released with the notification that it was “approved by the Pope
himself,” Father Lombardi said, “The Pope did not intend to declare the excommunication
of the Mexican politicians. Rather, the Holy Father was saying that these
politicians had broken from communion with the Church, and should not receive
the Eucharist.”

Upon arriving in São Paulo, Mexican
journalists pressed Father Lombardi again about whether Mexican politicians who
voted in favor of abortion were formally excommunicated.

“No, they have excluded themselves
from Communion,” Father Lombardi said.

Televisa, Mexico’s largest
broadcaster, immediately reported that “Mexican politicians are not
excommunicated,” without explaining the full canonical situation, thus
contributing to the continuing confusion.

U.S. Implications

Although the question posed to the
Pope during his flight to Brazil involved the Mexican situation, it has significant
implications in the current American political landscape since several
pro-abortion Catholics are running for the White House in 2008.